Top figures from investment bank UBS have backed NSW Premier Mike Baird's evidence before a parliamentary inquiry that his staff never asked them to re-write a report in the government's favour.
Mr Baird faced a grilling on Monday morning over a UBS report, released at the height of the March election campaign, on his plan to partially privatise the state's poles and wires.
He admitted that when the report appeared with the sub-heading "Bad for the budget, good for the state", his chief of staff Bay Warburton and policy director Matt Crocker went straight to UBS Australia chief executive Matthew Grounds and head of investment banking Guy Fowler to raise their concerns.
The report was quickly reissued under the title "Good for the state" but the premier denied this happened at the request of his lieutenants.
"I know you're looking for a conspiracy theory but the conspiracy does not exist," Mr Baird told the inquiry.
A number of senior UBS figures - including Mr Grounds, Head of Research Chris Williams and the authors of the report in question, utilities analyst David Leitch and Andrew Lilley - gave evidence in parliament on Monday afternoon.
They said it was Mr Williams who first flagged concerns about the "Bad for business" heading, which he believed was inconsistent with the rest of the report.
"Mr Leitch, Mr Lilley and I are fiercely independent, and we made the decision to publish the addendum with no influence from anyone else," Mr Williams said.
"Indeed, we were not aware of any communication between the government and UBS."
Report author Mr Leitch said it was his idea to make other alterations to make his support for the lease plan clear.
"He (Mr Williams) wanted the headline changed, and I wanted to edit the report to de-emphasise some of the negative parts of it because ... the original reason for writing the report was once again to emphasise all the benefits to the state of the entire privatisation process," Mr Leitch told the inquiry.
UBS last year won a contract to advise the government on its poles and wires plan, though Mr Grounds was unable to say how much that contract was worth.
He said there was a strict divide between the independent research arm of UBS and its other activities.
"What happens in research happens in research - the good, the bad and the ugly," Mr Grounds added.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley said he was keen to see the results of an ASIC probe into whether Chinese walls within UBS were breached.
A spokeswoman for the corporate regulator told AAP she could not comment on the status of that inquiry.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Baird flagged plans for a licensing regime that would apply to any potential lessees.
He also wants to give the NSW energy minister the right to seize control of lease-holders if they breach safety, security or reliability obligations.
Monday's was the first of three hearings into the government's electricity network lease plan.
Balance of power MP Fred Nile made the inquiry a condition of his support for the poles and wires lease plan but it has been criticised as a rubber stamping exercise.
The next hearing will take place on Friday.
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